


This is Halloween

by WiFiH0o



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: Crime, F/F, Halloween AU, Mystery, Supernatural - Freeform, That Iconic Halloween Busking Event
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2020-09-28 10:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20424149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WiFiH0o/pseuds/WiFiH0o
Summary: Police officer Lee Yubin, known to the public as Dami, is called to investigate an area for 3 potential missing persons cases. She enters an unassuming apartment-looking building which unbeknownst to her is home to a murder scene.With a sneaking suspicion about the building, she goes to investigate only to find a dead clown and an undead vampire. How will she ever solve the mystery? Especially with the vampire in question hopping about and bumping into her with no regards to her personal space.DaDong! DaDong! DaDong!An AU based off the Halloween Busking event – Dami’s policewoman outfit and Handong’s Chinese vampire/zombie outfit. I know I'm hella late to this but better late than never.Ended up being more mystery and crime than romance.





	1. The Beginning of The End

**Author's Note:**

> This is all the information you need to know to enjoy this chapter:
> 
> A jiangshi, more commonly known as a Chinese hopping vampire, is what I think Handong was dressed up as for the Halloween busking event. I tried to keep as close to Chinese mythology/lore as much as possible, but it had to tweak somethings (sadly) for the sake of plot.  
Jiangshi are only able to move by hopping and stick their arms out in front of them like traditional Western zombies. Instead of sucking blood to survive, they suck the life force out of animals and humans, growing more powerful overtime, but that takes centuries. Jiangshi are normally scared of nearly everything when first reanimated (with the yellow paper/talisman on their heads).
> 
> A (Japanese) kabedon is when someone (usually a man to a woman) pins a person they like against a wall with both or one of their hands. It’s usually a romantic gesture and when the person kabedonning confesses their love.  
And the sclera is the white of the eye.
> 
> Expect more characters and more plot the next chapter.  
Maybe updating weekly, if not earlier!

It was the silence with the occasional static that first piqued her interest. Mindless. Numbing. That’s what everything felt to Handong now. She hopped, nearly stumbling unused to this dead weight called her body and hopped again towards the static; the sound getting ever so louder with each proceeding hop. The yellow piece of paper repeatedly blocked her vision, but her arms were too stiff to move it out of the way – for now anyway. She stopped. That’s what her gut was telling her to do. The static then grew louder, despite her not moving.

“Hello?”, a deep, alluring voice called from the dark. It was far, but not too far; and if her senses were refined enough then, she’d know that it was coming from below. The static flared, the voice now distorted, “Hello? Can you hear me?”

A sharp gasp. Shifting. A light thud. “A clown? Tacky, but it is October,” the voice whispered, seemingly to themselves. Static and cautious footsteps began to get louder once more, the increase in volume getting progressively faster; the light footsteps paused, another gasp, and then they began to get heavy, no longer light and airy. If she could remember emotions properly, she’d have realised that the footsteps sounded angry and that the stairs leading to the room she was currently on were being used with a fury she’d probably never experience again. The lights weren’t working in the building, and the blinds halted the entrance of most of the dim moonlight.

If she could overcome the numbness since her transformation, she’d have felt the ground shaking ever so slightly under the pure rage emanating from the footsteps, instead all she could do was hear. Hear it get louder.

Her head shifted to the right. That was where the sound was coming from. And with her new eyes, she could clearly see the source of all the sound that was disturbing her.  
“Don’t move.” It was obviously the voice belonging the far-off woman. If she tried hard enough, she would remember that the woman was dressed like (and was) a policewoman; and that she was clutching a gun with her hands; and that it was pointed to her chest; and that since she was undead, she wouldn’t be fazed by the bullet. But she couldn’t try hard enough to remember the last point, so stay still she did. 

Lee Yubin. That was the name on the badge gleaming the only light in the room that humans could see. 

“Lee”, she shakily said, “Y-Y-oo-bin”, with the vocal cords she barely remembered how to use. The foreignness of her body must’ve distorted her voice, as it took a while for the police officer to respond to it in a way that a normal person would when having their name called out. 

“Put your hands where I can see them. Otherwise I will shoot.”  
It was quite pointless for Lee Yubin to say that, as Handong had her arms extended outwards and Yubin could see them (barely), but it was clear that she meant that she put her hands on her head. Instead, Handong just hopped forwards; and if she studied Yubin’s carefully enough, she’d have recognised confusion, anger and confliction all amalgamate together on her face. The police officer’s gun raised a bit more in response to the hop. Amused, and with a twitch on the right side of her lips, (the beginnings of a smile forming, not that Handong knew what smiling was now) she hopped towards Yubin once more, letting a stripe of moonlight shine on her greying face.

Despite her total deadness, Handong had rosy red cheeks, and that was what the police officer noticed first, the sharp contrast between her grey skin and red blush of her cheeks. Then she noticed the strange yellow piece of paper on her hat; then her orange hair in two low buns; then the short black dress she was wearing and the strange blue fabric on top. Then she remembered what she said and shot the left side of the strange woman. Not anywhere too fatal of course. Around the oblique section.

It wasn’t the noticeable lack of reaction that shocked Yoobin, but the absence of blood, or sound from the woman. Another hop towards her was the only thing the policewoman garnered.

“H-Han? No. Yes. Han Dong. I am Handong.” Her lack of confidence with her voice was apparent with the rising intonation of her voice, but it was far better than her first attempt at speaking with her new body. “I- “

Then, out of morbid curiosity, Lee Yubin shot the left side of what called herself Handong. No reaction to the bullet, just another (significantly long) hop towards Yubin again. This time, it wasn’t the contrast of her blush which caught Yubin off guard, but the first sign of sincere emotion on her face. One of pain. Not from the bullet, as she would’ve shown that when first being shot, but emotional? Was that correct? 

Then Handong’s right hand started clenching and unclenching. Then her left hand. They both stared at it, enticed and confused, until it stopped. Then her arms bent slightly and straightened. Followed by her legs bending. She rolled her feet individually when they were off the ground. Her limbs were becoming less stiff. She was getting used to this body now. She posed. Copying Yubin’s ‘holding a gun’ posture, not looking quite right as it looked stiff and unnatural and ridiculous as there was no gun in her hands. 

Confused, Yubin struck a pose, one that others would sarcastically call “high-fashion”. Handong mirrored it, stumbling at the start. Then Yubin laughed, so did Handong, she was unsure of what to do; nearly forgetting the dead body of the girl dressed up as a clown in the floor below in process of assessing this Handong creature. Their voices weirdly harmonised in a way pleasing to the ears. 

This was unprecedented.

A jiangshi? That could talk. This only ever happened in the books that Yubin read, and web-dramas Handong had previously watched when human.  
Handong took an uncoordinated step forward. Her right foot colliding with the left blood covered shoe of the policewoman. It was when Yubin looked down, surprised by the step (and not a hop), at her foot was she reminded of her situation. Yes, it was very clear that this Handong vampire woman was the killer.

Or was she? 

Carefully, Yubin reached for her flashlight and shone a light on the creature of the undead, getting a clearer view of Handong. Her eyes were a pale green, nearly the same colour of the sclera, and wow her cheekbones. Her lips a matte red, from lipstick. Her nails long and sharp, ditto with her canines. Most importantly, not a sight of blood on her, and there was no way for her to clean up (there was no working bathroom in this building, just like any other standard abandoned office-warehouse). 

Yubin scrutinized the woman’s face again, met by a stare back. Maybe it was the flashlight, but the skin of Handong began turning a more pinkish-flesh colour, more reminiscent of a living human. Maybe it was Handong’s strange new eyes, but a tinge of red was slowly creeping up Yubin from the neck up. Maybe it was the other step taken and the colliding of Handong’s left foot with Yoobin’s right foot and the closeness of them that left something else other than the answer to the mystery of the scene to be desired. 

It was quiet for quite some time in that room.

Unsure of what to do to break the uncomfortable silence, Handong hopped forwards – in true jiangshi fashion. Of course, since she was uncoordinated and the pair were exceptionally close, this led to her literally and figuratively falling for Yubin. The momentum of the jump and the power behind it forced the police officer to stagger backwards for quite a bit of distance, nearly toppling over due to the vampire unexpectedly chucking herself carelessly onto her. Thankfully, there was a wall close to her and she was able to stabilise herself and the jiangshi against it, the vampire having enough sense to stop herself from headbutting the other woman by putting her stiff arms in front of her and next to Yubin’s head. Oh, how Handong should’ve not been so hasty to get rid of the pregnant silence.

If they were awkward when close the last time, this was a whole new level of <strike>gay panic </strike> awkwardness. Their faces were centimetres away from each other, not to mention the height gap and the way Handong tilted her face downwards to look straight into Yubin’s eyes…Surely if the police officer hadn’t known she was into women, she’d have figured it out in that moment. 

The numbness of Handong’s body began to recede. She knew because she could clearly feel Yubin’s heart beating through the vibrations of the wall. She could feel the way her breath hitched ever so slightly whenever the static from her dropped walkie-talkie flared. She could smell her perfume so clearly, and the slight aroma of sweat in the air; and if she remembered what being human was like, she would’ve been able to see the fear laced on Yubin’s face and sense immense <strike>gay</strike> panic from her.

But Lee Yubin had always prided herself in professionalism, so – admittedly longer than it should have taken because how could someone not be frozen still in her circumstances – she slid against the wall and ducked under Handong’s arm, freeing herself from the vampire’s (accidental, or was it) kabedon. Yes. She had a scene to investigate; a persecutor to pursuit and a case to solve.


	2. The Investigation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I got anxious and bored, so I wrote up a summary of the plot so expect more updates more often  
I still don't know what my updating schedule will be, just that it'll be at least 1 chapter a week (Tuesday will act as the start of the week because that's when I first posted chapter 1.

Free from that almighty awkward situation, Lee Yubin finally had the peace of mind to begin collecting and analysing data. 

1) There have been two homicides  
2) The murderer had a knife  
3) The most recent murder hadn’t happened too long ago as the body of the clown girl wasn’t stone cold

That was all she had for now. 

She began with assessing the area, there was another floor above them, but she’ll go there after investigating the floor she was currently on. She scanned the area with her flashlight, the staircase leading to the floor above was covered in blood. The blood on the stairs created a clear trail to the railing, wall, a table; then to a pool of nearly dried out blood. Yubin crouched in front of it, seeing that bloody footprints emerged from there, and made a trail leading to Handong. ‘So, this is where she died,’ brooded the police officer, staring at her sympathetically.  
The vampire had been looking at her for a while, body turned towards Yubin, and made eye contact with her; confused but also mildly entertained at the (living) human’s need for information and attention to detail. Yubin then quickly went back to inspecting the blood. She placed her gun on the floor and pulled out a pack of latex gloves and slipped them onto her hands, careful to remove the rings on her fingers and put them into the breast pocket of her shirt beforehand; hearing gentle hopping coming towards her whilst doing so. She poked the blood with her left hand. Sticky, cold. 

4) Handong was killed far earlier than the other girl

Another uncoordinated hop from Handong that nearly pushed Yubin into the pool of blood was what reminded her to inspect Handong’s body – usually she would inspect the corpse but due to supernatural circumstances, she is the corpse, just an undead one that can talk and move and hop about. How nice of the universe for her to be able to stare meticulously at someone for reasons purely professional and not have the person be dying or dead – well she is dead, but also not really? Anyway, she stood upright and quickly, bringing the flashlight to Handong’s face once again, but for an entirely different motive. On Handong’s neck were three slashes, raw and red, but not bleeding and not too deep either. There were signs of being kidnapped too, judging by the red bands of rope burn on her wrists which would’ve, under normal circumstances, been gone or barely there but the undead skin of the jiangshi made it all too obvious. Yubin took her left glove off and plopped them to the ground close to where her gun was. With the other gloved hand, she touched the wound. Handong winced and let out a slight hiss, and she pulled back immediately at her reaction. It was strange that she could take on bullets with no problem, but a gentle touch of her previous skin-deep wound made the vampire react so badly. Curious, she bent down and examined the bullet wounds she inflicted. No blood, no redness, no pain when touched either. It was when she tried to look for the exit wounds that she found the cause of Handong’s death.

Two large slashes. One running from the top of her right shoulder blade to a couple of inches above her tailbone. The other, though less deep and wide, running nearly the entire length of her left leg; and Handong had long legs. 

“Is it okay if I touch it?”

A small whimper came out as a reply along with a slow short nod. Lighter than last time, she began tracing her gloved hand along the edge of the cut on her back, not too close to it. She saw that Handong’s back straightened and tensed up. She had flinched, pulling her arms closer to her face, as boxer would do when taking on their fighting stance. Yubin stopped and retreated her keen hand.

Handong turned around on the balls of her feet, arms laying down instead of out like (a zombie/jiangshi) normal. 

“Pretty,” she muttered while staring at Yubin. Oh. Oh! Yubin, who was on one of her knees reaching for her gun, froze. Flustered. She was flustered, even the vampire knew, and she had no real memory nor sense nor experience of that emotion. It was funny to the jiangshi the way she reacted, her surprised face so different from her resting face comprised of apathy and judgement. The way the policewoman held herself was of chicness but the way her eyes lit up and her eyebrows lifted so quickly and the way that her cheeks would look so soft when she bit her lip spoke of a completely different side of her. Handong, wanting to see more of that side of her poked and prodded at Yubin’s emotions a bit more. “Your glasses. They’re very pretty.” And that was it. She had successfully brought out a whole other range of emotions out of Yubin’s <strike>pretty</strike> face. One of shock and horror; another of relief; a tinge of sadness and a hint of disappointment. Then Lee Yubin went back to her emotionless resting face. Not even a reply. Another fail from Handong at getting to know the police officer better. Maybe it would’ve been easier if she was a human barely surviving instead of an undead vampire. ‘How did jiangshi reverse their transformations again? Could they?’ she pondered, looking off into the distance to avoid the glare of the officer and to wipe away any distractions. 

How was she able to remember what a policeman and a gun was? She could remember things from her previous life, just how, she didn’t know. Why was life, or the undead one for her, so difficult, she can’t even remember how to remember things.

“Let’s go upstairs.” Motioned Yubin to the dazed and wondering vampire, “Just try not to slip on the blood, in fact, don’t go near the blood because we don’t want to contaminate any evidence.” Whilst walking towards the staircase, the amateur detective was able to see just how much blood Handong had lost. A lot. She pondered on the thought of whether it would trigger the undead but didn’t say anything, worried it might set something loose inside her. Peering into the darkness of the floor above her, she pointed her flashlight at it, silently waiting at the base of the stairs for the sound of hopping to get closer to her and the bump from the overzealous last hop. It took about a good 4 seconds for Handong to bump into Yubin, once again demonstrating her inability to stop getting closer to the woman and her clumsiness at the same time. Two birds with one stone.  
Two birds that Handong really shouldn’t hit if she wanted to get closer to the policewoman – in terms of emotional, and not physical, she’s already invaded so much of Yubin’s personal space in the short amount of time they met each other.

Now that Handong was close to her, albeit too close for her comfort, she began walking up the stairs, 23 she counted. They always put an odd number, don’t they? It irked the policewoman. Maybe this is the reason why the building’s abandoned, the odd number of stairs; the first staircase she climbed had 21, more reasonable because it’s not a prime number, but still bothersome. It didn’t even match the same number of steps of the previous flight of stairs, how unreasonable.

She turned back, looking at how Handong was faring at the stairs. Very awkward and very slow.  
Did she have to keep the vampire close to her? But then she could <strike>run</strike> hop amok and tamper with the evidence, purposely or not. She sighed and rolled her eyes to no one and descended the stairs to go and help Handong. The poor woman was still on her seventh step. Curse these stupid stairs and their shortness and odd numbers and blood. At least she took her words about not going near the blood seriously.

Yubin was three steps above the jiangshi, not wanting to replicate their last intimate moment again. She stretched her hands out, looking at Handong straight in her pale eyes and said, “Walk, properly.” When she saw that Handong hadn’t moved, she tried to be more encouraging, “I won’t let you fall. I promise.” When the vampire saw that Yubin’s eyes softened and a small smile was emerging, she fell for her again.

Literally and figuratively. 

Instead of rationally taking the officer’s hands and pulling herself up, one foot at a time as Yubin hoped she would, she placed one foot on the step above, grabbed one of Yubin’s hand and propelled her herself to the same step that the policewoman was on and promptly fell on her. Slightly expecting this, Yubin just took a step up with one foot and pulled the woman in, embracing her in a hug and not falling down the stairs.

Then she just dragged her upstairs in that position. Not trusting Handong with moving elegantly anywhere anymore.

When she reached the top of the stairs again, she spun around and placed Handong on the ground. Ignoring the burning in her cheeks and the redness of Handong’s face, it was probably embarrassment anyway. She pointed the flashlight around the room. It had no blinds, so it was dimly lit by the full moon. There was a chair with ropes that were broken, a knife lay near the chair, covered in blood. That was strange, there were clearly two murders, but only one chair, and Handong had died earlier than that clown girl and on a different floor so she wasn’t the killer; especially considering that the girl had died because of a stab wound. So that meant:

5) Each homicide was done by different people

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Thanks for reading this chapter! Maybe I'll post the next chapter on Tuesday.


	3. It Was Wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is quite slow in terms of the plot, but you guys get more backstory :)  
Also with the news that Dami's name is spelt Yubin and not Yoobin umm, I might change the past chapters to reflect that

She turned around. This place felt familiar, not familiar the way that the image of handcuffs, police badge and gun meant a police officer; but an emotional one. This place felt like a home. No. Not a home. It had a sense of unease and wringed with wrong. Like a hotel when homesick.  
It felt wrong, and for Handong to be feeling things, especially at this time, it meant something worse.

Dread. Another emotion that she felt the wisps of. It was strange, and unlike embarrassment, not fleeting, staying, at the pit of her stomach, churning, bubbling.  
Her eyes looked to where Yubin’s was looking at. 

A chair. That too felt wrong. She could feel, yes actually feel, the sensation of sitting on it, like a normal human being, walking and not hopping, sitting and not standing, feeling. This was recent, wasn’t it? She scanned the room to see where the policewoman was, eager to get this feeling thing out of her system, it was new, and it felt wrong. The fact that she could feel it being wrong was an indication in itself.

Yubin was near the chair, crouched, looking down at… Something. Handong couldn’t see what she was investigating so she hopped towards the officer. Once. Twice, thrice- and a clank? This time stepping on the handcuff linked to her belt loop, causing Yubin to wobble to where the extra weight came from. She didn’t react much to it, already used to the uncoordinated vampire; so maybe she had rolled her eyes and let out a huff of irritation, but it was nothing new, and nothing that Handong had really paid attention to either.

Handong, not one to back out of something she had set her mind to, attempted to crouch down too. If she had tried this earlier, it would have ended in her falling over and thus toppling over the police officer, but she was shaking off the stiffness of rigour mortis. At least that’s what she hoped was happening. So, crouch down she did. It wasn’t as elegant as she wished it was, but it wasn’t disastrous, and it was one of the best-case scenarios too. Slow as she was, she didn’t fall over. Now successfully on Yubin’s level, she looked at where the flashlight was pointing at and.

A knife. It was warm. It looked like it was anyway. The blood. Was it hers? She vaguely remembered the heat on her wrists. The desperation of wanting to escape. The deep feeling of betrayal. The stinging on her neck waning between small embers and hell fire. How quickly the world flashed between blue, to black, to red. The bright light at the end. 

She reached out to the radiating knife, as if it would answer all the questions rampaging in her mind before Yubin caught her wrist. A shake of disapproval. She must’ve seen the look of terror and shock on Handong’s face. A smart move, though she wouldn’t know why just yet.

Still holding her wrist, Yubin, urged the vampire to stand up, doing so herself – her grip on her wrist loosening. So, stand up Handong did, albeit slowly and still wondering about the knife and why it felt so important; and why the feeling of importance was occurring within her in the first place. When both were stood up straight, Yubin nudged Handong’s hand, sliding down her wrist, finally lightly tugging on the pinky finger, and pointedly looked at the rope fallen near the chair, “Can you tell me anything about this?” muttered the officer, quiet and withdrawn letting go of the finger after questioning the jiangshi. Handong’s gaze rapidly averted from the knife to Yubin and then to the rope.  
The same feeling of importance arose. She hopped closer to the rope on the floor and crouched down in the same manner she did with the knife – slow and safe and secure – Yubin following closely behind. It looked like this time she wouldn’t stop her from touching the rope as she was situated just a bit further than her arms could reach Handong’s. She was making no effort in hiding her intentions. She wanted Handong to react to it. Some type of reaction that would spur or trigger any memories and give a better clue than just an obvious murder weapon and a kidnapping. 

And it happened. 

She so vividly recalled her clammy hands, the tight rope. The drowsiness and a throbbing sensation on the back of her head. So crystal clear were her memories that she could feel how utterly wrong it was for her to still be moving and feeling and being undead. She remembered the fake smile etched onto what was supposed to be her best friend. How cobwebs were strung around the room like decorations. The faint chalk drawn around her and a demonic voice speaking of rituals and possessions and of how weak-minded and naïve she was. How too kind-hearted and happy-to-help she was. How she shouldn’t have trusted her.

Handong stumbled backwards, nearly falling had Yubin not caught the vampire in time. Handong’s eyes were shut. They wouldn’t open for a long minute and a half. Scared that she might’ve ruined her only lead or even worse, fully killed Handong, she checked for a pulse and if she was breathing, only to not recall whether or not she was doing those things when they first met; settling for laying Handong on her lap and waiting in the time being. Then the long minute and a half passed and Handong eyes shot open. They were brown – not the pale white she was used to, instead, a deep barely there brown edging onto black. She looked so alive for the undead. The difference that some colour made to her visage clearly stunned the police officer, pulling her head back in shock when she noticed the change – which was quite quickly given that she was leaning in close and intently staring at Handong’s face to spot any sign of her waking up. 

She couldn’t help it. Handong let out a chuckle which turned into laughter. The look of surprise on her face and how wide her eyes went and how high and fast her eyebrows rose were so comical and not the way that Yubin presented herself as. As her laughter died down, Yubin probed the jiangshi, “So, do you remember anything?”.  
So blunt.

Oh, how Handong cherished that. Handong nodded, out of sheer want to help her rather than remembering that she remembered.

“A friend betrayed me. She wanted to do a… umm” Handong pondered for a bit, the memory of the word not coming to her. She lifted her head up and sat upright, pointing out the faint chalk lines around the chair in hopes that it would jog her memory or help Yubin understand what she was trying to say, “r-r-r-…”

Yubin looked at the barely-there chalk circle on the wooden floorboards and what she thought was meant to be a star, the chair being in the middle. “A ritual?” to which Handong aggressively agreed to. She stared more intently at the circle, following it, finding something peculiar on the edge of the circle. “Do you see that?” She didn’t want to outright say it as she scared that she might provoke another change; a change that was for the worse. Yubin still didn’t know what would and wouldn’t trigger her, let alone if words could, but she’d rather stay on the cautious side for now. 

Handong squinted her eyes, unsure of what ‘that’ Yubin was talking about. She guessed that ‘that’ must’ve been around the circle because that’s where she was pointing her flashlight. Handong followed carefully the movement of where the light of the flashlight would be. Chalk. Chalk. Chalk. Chalk. Chalk. Light. Chalk. Chalk. Light? There was a small sliver of light being reflected on the edge of the circle. Chalk. Chalk. Chalk. Light. There it was again. She leaned closer to the circle, placing a hand on it while doing so. It felt wrong. The feeling of wrongness flooded her again. She retracted her hand from the circle. Something was definitely wrong. She turned her hand over. She saw a line of chalk across her palm and underneath it a small line of darkness. It was sticky and cold and wrong.

And then it wasn’t so cold. It was hot. Like a brand. Its heat crept its way from her hand upwards. The same sensation was occurring on her neck. The 3 slashes on her neck were burning. Hot. Stinging. Pain erupted from her neck; a gargled scream barely escaped her throat. It was all encompassing. The world had shrunk, and it was only her and the pain seeping from the wounds on her neck. Her vision flashed from white to red to black to blue and again and again and again. Goodbyes said in a foreign language, a plane, a university, a costume, singnie – ‘this is the wrong address??’. Joy from being able to participate in that musical. The crushing feeling of not being able to see her family for New Years. Cold wind welcoming her to her friendless dorm. A smiling roommate and a playful puppy-like – until it stopped.

A gentle hand was placed on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm late, there's no excuse. I'll upload 2 chapters this week to make up for it


	4. A Car

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Text in '/word/' means that it's in Chinese.  
Also, I advise re-reading the author's note in chapter 1 on jiangshi.

It was the gargled scream that caught her attention. Her arms were slowly reaching towards the slashes on her neck, how could she be in pain? Was it because she came in contact with the circle? Maybe she had touched the blood, it seemed that so far touching anything that had some sort of relevance to her death caused this reaction, but it was still unknown what would or wouldn’t trigger her. Yubin couldn’t look at her being in pain anymore. It was disturbing, the last time that she had left Handong’s reaction to just fade away it did something to her, who knows what disastrous thing could happen. She started, gently, not wanting to startle her. “Are you okay?”

And it stopped.  
Thankfully.

Handong didn’t pass out this time, but there were tears threatening to leak from her eyes. Her whole face looked flushed and somehow the cuts on her neck seemed to deepen in colour, almost glowing with how saturated it was. Her greyish dead skin didn’t seem as dead, but she still had the aura of death clinging onto her. The blush on her cheeks was dispersing and blending into her skin. She was becoming all the more human like. That yellow paper covered part of her face again. Yubin reached out and twisted it to the left so it would reveal more of it. Yes, she definitely looked more alive – but the feeling of deadness was still there.

“W-was there a car near here?”, her voice was slightly trembling, from what Yubin didn’t know, but whatever she had just been through must’ve been extreme. Was there a car near here? What a peculiar question. She thought back to the call she received about the missing persons. Was it 3 or 2? Whatever it was, she was the closest, and fastest to respond. She couldn’t recall well, but she did spot a black car somewhere on the drive to the area, but that was so far away, about a 20 to 35 minute walk. Should she tell her? What if it misleading and not relevant. But she couldn’t not tell her now.

“I think so.”

Handong’s face scrunched up. It looked like she was displeased at the thought of that, but Yubin couldn’t tell that well; especially since they weren’t exactly the best at communicating with each other. Handong hummed in replied and began hopping towards the moonlit window, slowly and steadily, eyebrow knit together and forming an expression of what Handong hoped to be contemplation. With nothing better to do, Yubin followed in her footsteps, taking her time to absorb the minimalistic surroundings, furniture (other than the chair), ceiling and the floor. They were walking on a wooden veneer, the whole building’s floor was comprised of it, varnished and dark in colour. A typical squared tile ceiling with LED lights sat flush into it. The walls a yellowing plaster – how cheap and tacky. It reminded Yubin of her old school. A table and a small desk were pushed away to the sides of the room, seemingly to make room for the ritual circle, and around them on the ground what seemed to be old polaroid photos of people and a piece of paper.

Tang. It seemed that Handong had <strike>reached</strike> bumped into the window with her arms. From there, they could oversee a forested area, and some signs of civilisation far off in the distance where the vegetation started to become less dense and large. From there branched off some roads and buildings, however, no feasible drivable road led to this building; how Yubin was able to pick this area out even she didn’t know herself, this deep feeling buried in her intuition led her to this area. It just felt like a perfect place to kidnap someone and leave them there whilst you go about your day pretending you didn’t just ruin someone’s life. 

Yubin turned to the jiangshi, her face was so serious, no longer aloof or teasing. Her eyes were looking at something that Yubin couldn’t pick out with her human eyes, even with the aid of her (weak) glasses. Lumps of dark green and the dark silhouettes of apartments were all she could pick out and shining a flashlight onto the window would only cause light to refract and reveal the face of utter defeat on Yubin. She could ask the vampire about what was out there but somehow didn’t trust her to reveal anything relevant. She pondered on that thought. Any information could be useful information right now and it would certainly bring the 2 closer together or at the very least remove the remnants of awkwardness that still lingered in the air.

So she decided to bite the metaphorical bullet.

“Do you see anything?”, vague.

“Yes.”

Yubin wanted to know more, obviously, so she prodded for more details, “Anything reminding you of something? Or maybe that car? You were talking about.”

“Not yet. I can see your car though, the police one, right? It’s quite close to where I got knocked out.” Handong leaned closer to the window, forgoing the zombie stance that she typically held, hands pressing against it, nose slightly grazing the pane – and had she been alive, breath fogging the glass. Handong squinted then broke out into a playful laugh, “Ah, are those donuts? How police like of you.” True to what she was saying, there was a pack of donuts sitting on the dashboard of her car, but did she have to focus on such frivolous and embarrassing things? Plus, this was such a long shift and couldn’t exactly cook dinner in the car.

She changed the topic once more, “I think I can see the car! Is that my phone? On the street? Ew. It’s even got cracks on it now. Oh! Someone’s calling me! I –”

Then Yubin collapsed. 

Handong had noticed in time, barely catching her and able to support her with uneasy arms. Each breath Yubin took left a burning sensation in her throat, and each breath out served to feed the flame, getting hotter and hotter. Handong placed the back of her cold hand on the pallid forehead of Yubin’s. It was hot too, almost burning, but that might have just been the temperature difference of her stone-cold body. The nearly fallen glasses resting on her nose bridge were fogging up somehow. Something was wrong with her. Despite the total lack of feeling in her right leg from the knees and below, Yubin attempted to stand up, stubborn as ever. She slammed her hands on the wooden floor, nearly falling due to the slickness from her sweaty palms. She let a hiss out and pushed herself up with her left leg and leaned on her right leg tentatively. It was okay, so she added more of her body weight onto it. She was tilting slightly to the left, but it was doable and not exactly the worst thing she’d sustained; occupational hazard.

Then she lost all sensation in her left leg too. 

At least she had the window to lean onto this time when she fell this time.

So, the window didn’t really help because she just kept falling and was eventually cushioned by an enveloping hug from Handong. 

“Wake up!”, it came out more desperate and not as strong as Handong had wanted it to sound. She then whimpered an almost inaudible, “Please.” 

It wasn’t like the fuzzy uncomfortable feeling when having pins and needles. It was like sleep paralysis, and all she could do was watch the blurred, concerned face of Handong get closer as she further lost the ability to move the lower half of her body. Ah. Her fingertips were starting to feel like TV static. It felt peaceful? The heat was fading. It was getting colder.

It was the sudden blur of black, blue and white and the sound of a clap reverberating around the room that made Yubin process that she was being slapped awake and not the sudden pain and light stinging left on her cheek. A sharp inhale and that burning in her throat returned. 

God it hurt so much. Maybe she could just not breath. 

“It hurts.”

“What does?”

“Breathing.” 

Handong’s face scrunched up in displeasure again. She breathily whispered to her, “Don’t talk so much then, /stupid/.” With her frigid hand, she stroked her face and patted her cheek affectionately. Yubin was so hot that it almost hurt her to keep touching her face, but she couldn’t stop. Not now. It felt like she was doing something. She couldn’t not. But she did.

Yubin was being softly lowered onto the ground, the coldness of the wooden floor reminding her of the supernatural heat that was radiating from her. Numbness became the norm for her, and her senses were beginning to fail her. The coldness on her face faded away, along with the sound of a pathetic apology and a pitter patter sound.

“/I understood that you know/.” She weakly said before the world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm updating tomorrow too! Tune in for that, this chapter was 100 words shorter than normal, but the difference is minuscule.


	5. So self-destructive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be updating the next chapter in around 3 days! Stay tuned!  
More plot movement this time.  
This is going to end up as a long fanfic.

“/I understood that you know/.”

She felt cowardly and pathetic. But what she had felt most was guilt. 

Her limbs felt so real to her, a strength was returning to her undead body she had never felt before. It wasn’t just loosened, the rigour mortis had gone entirely, the old caged feeling from the stiffness was gone. She was so articulated and elegant now. She was walking! By God she was walking, but so elegant she was that she looked like she was floating, no more stupid hopping and no more stupid zombie arms. Her shoulders were aching dully from holding it in that position so long. A pull in her chest. How could she not have felt that ache before? The pulling in her chest deepened. She was breathing! Shallow breaths that wouldn’t be sufficient for a normal human being, but it was something! It felt so freeing. Oxygen flowed through her nose and had her lungs been working, she would’ve felt how fresh the air was for an abandoned building. Another pull near her still un-beating heart. She felt so human and alive for being a vampire and dead. But crushing guilt flooded her every time she reminded herself why. 

She was undead for a reason. 

She reached the top of the stairs. The blood looking more and more displeasing, how she used to be able to not pay attention to it was beyond her. Handong turned around on the balls of feet. There, the moon shining so brightly, laid Yubin’s nearly unconscious body. She had stopped radiating that supernatural heat. Her breaths had stabilised. Her head was still pointed to the ceiling and her eyes were crescents, glasses fogged, ruining any hope of seeing she had.

The moonlight seemed to want Handong to keeping hurting her. It highlighted her features in ways thought impossible. It tempted her to glide back to Yubin’s side and cover her in light tender kisses. It made her keen on wiping away the fog that had somehow accumulated on her glasses and tuck away the stray hairs on her face. It lured her in to delicately trace a finger on Yubin’s face and wipe away the tear that was forming on her left eye. It coaxed her to take the fallen police hat from the floor and, after pulling her upright, readjust it on Yubin’s head; or maybe she’d teasingly hang it higher than Yubin could reach and ask for a kiss in return for it back.

But the beauty of Yubin and the moon couldn’t change her mind. She was adamant.

She cautiously took a step down the stairs. Yes, this was much easier than hopping. She’d have to hurry though, before her strength could wane away. She could hear the breaths of Yubin deepen and a groan of pain. She’d definitely have to hurry, least she be lulled back to her side.

“Are you leaving? Already?”

The guilt had returned. It crashed down. How could she not have realised sooner? The returning memory and ability to move. Her increasing coordination. How her senses seemed to heighten far too much, even for a jiangshi. The flesh colour returning to her hands. The increasing paleness of Yubin’s face, the decrease in the strength of her heartbeat. The shallower and faster breaths she was taking. 

It didn’t exactly take a genius. Had Yubin known this whole time? She must have, after all, she was so attentive to details, how could she not notice her own diminishing health. Damn it. Damn her.

Handong was on the seventh step down, when she heard clearly and loudly, “Don’t you dare move.” Had she been human, she’d have felt a shiver travel down her spine and been frozen in fear hearing that deep voice echo around the room. But she wasn’t, as she had to constantly remind herself while she had mulled over what to do. Why didn’t she survive? Been more careful? Why didn’t she die? Why was she reanimated?

Wanting to sound as unaffected as possible, she retorted with, “What are you going to do? Shoot me officer? Why I’d never.” It didn’t sound natural. It was so forced. And if she was able to point that out, Yubin would have been even quicker. She took another step down, testing the waters, seeing if she’d actually react. It was probable that there would be no reaction, but it was for a ‘just in case’ situation.

“Han Dong…”

She felt the ground vibrate a bit, from her position, she couldn’t see Yubin, at least, not until she would be at the top of the staircase. A huff of frustration and then the sliding of fabric. A satisfying slap of the wooden floor and then the slamming of her body colliding to the floor. Another groan of pain. Then another hand was firmly planted to the ground. It seemed that she was not going to give up. She was so stubborn. But she was also temporarily paralysed, at least that was what Handong (correctly) thought she was, from the waist down. She’d have to be far away to even let Yubin gain her life energy back.

“God damn it Handong! If you think that your leaving will solve anything it won’t.”

Now Yubin was tempting her; it was even harder as she had spoken words that Handong never thought she’d say.

“I mean it, please.”

Couldn’t she understand the pain she was causing her? Was Yubin always this self-destructive? 

Handong continued walking down the stairs who was Yubin to stop her? No matter how threatening and intimidating she was, she wouldn’t be able to actually do anything until Handong started to regress back to hopping, and she clearly was not doing that any time soon. It was almost as if she was stealing Yubin’s ability to walk. The image of Yubin hopping came to her head and temporarily made her cheery and chuckle, how ridiculous she’d look, how ridiculous she looked herself hopping about everywhere. 

“Handong?”

She tried her best not to look at <strike>the</strike> her blood on the flight of stairs, it made her queasy and reminded her all too much of the fact that she was undead and unrightfully stealing the life of someone. It took admittedly quite a long time for Handong to descend down the stairs, the nausea from seeing her blood made her stumble and nearly trip into the thing that she feared, but she ended unscathed and pristine in the end. Yubin had finally quieted down. Her fiery spirit and stubbornness were being worn out and dying. She had stopped attempting to get up, after an umpteenth time slamming to the ground. She had then resorted to angrily slamming her fists on the ground, but even that quickly died down. She was just shakily breathing in and out now, the occasional sound of dragging and squeaking sound between the floor and skin occurring, but nothing that Handong should really heed, or did heed.

She was back on the floor where she had bled out. The handprints on the wall a reminder of her failure to walk properly, the scattered paper on the floor that were once on the abandoned desk revealing her tunnel vision and clumsiness and utter fear. That pool of blood. As sticky and cold as ever. The glove Yubin used to poke it laying near the edge of the pool, positioned centimetres away from it, safe from contaminating it more.

A creak. A deep intake of air. 

“DongDong?”

That wasn’t Yubin. She didn’t know her nickname.

“Yoohyeon?”

The entrance to the building on the ground floor was being opened. A larger, longer, deeper creak. Where had she heard that voice before, she closed her eyes and pictured her phone, maybe it was the same person who was calling her. ‘JiU’. Minji? She’d have to listen closer and hear her voice again to fully recognise it.

“Are you here?”

It was definitely Minji, she had always seemed like the type to say ‘hello’ to a dark room if she was a horror movie character. Handong opened her mouth and started to speak but stopped herself. It would be better if she stopped involving people in this situation; thinking back to Yubin in particular. She didn’t move at all. Minji stepped foot into the building and peered around. “No, she’s not. I don’t know where she is either. They’re both not here… You think?” The door creaked again, beginning to close. She could sense some panic settle into Minji as they both heard the creak of the door. “Oops, better leave before the door magically shuts forever. Jesus there’s so many cobwebs here.” Another creak and then finally a shut. At least that was done and over with. She didn’t know how much longer she could stay still, especially since she could feel the burning in her muscles so clearly now.

Handong hesitantly started to make her way to the last staircase. Before she was able to move from her spot near the base of the stairs, she felt a vibration from the wall.

She whipped her head around only to see blood-soaked trousers and shiny shoes and a crawling Yubin leaning against the blood covered handrail, forgoing the ‘we don’t want to contaminate any evidence’ attitude she had earlier. She leaned forward, her arms threatening to slip and legs still not fully under her command. Somehow, she was able to lift her right leg and took a step in to the waterfall of blood. It seemed that she didn’t care about anything anymore. Her right leg clearly wasn’t able to hold her full body weight, she knew that, Handong knew that. But she leaned on it anyway. She didn’t flinch nor scream. She just fell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to 1.6k words this chapter!


	6. The Calm Before The Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shortest chapter yet! This is because the next ones are probably going to be longer than the usual 1.6K words so I wanted to give myself a short break ^ ^  
Don't forget to vote for Deja Vu on Mnet Pre-Voting!! 1 vote per account (linked be social media) per day.

She was paralysed. She wanted to move. Her legs wouldn’t move, she wanted them to though. 

She quietly placed her hands in front of her and dragged her body towards the stairs, squeaking with every pull. Her arms were burning with an intensity she’d never felt before. It wasn’t every day that Yubin was dragging her body across a fairly large room with her upper body only. She had dropped her glasses earlier while struggling to get up, and her hat when she had first collapsed, but it didn’t matter to her. Another sound had grabbed the attention of Handong, as Yubin couldn’t hear her defiant footsteps any longer. This was the perfect time. She increased the power she used to pull herself with, glad that it was wooden and not carpet, friction not exactly being a problem due to the varnish. More noise. She was nearing the staircase. How she was going to get down the stairs, she hadn’t thought that far through.

She was paralysed from the waist down. How desperately she wanted to prove Handong wrong. If only she could move her stupid legs. She pulled herself closer to the staircase once more, half drenched in the blood she had told Handong to avoid contaminating. It didn’t matter anyway because she could take samples from the knife, ritual circle and pool of blood. If only she could move her legs, it would be so much easier.

But then they did, of their own according, towards Handong. She couldn’t feel it, she could only watch as her legs pushed her crawling body upright and stumbled towards the top of the stairs, slamming her body clumsily to the railing. 

That was going to leave a bad bruise later on.

At the top of the stairs, she could see the silhouette of Handong. Her shadow falling on her. She had left her flashlight on the floor; it was still turned on; she’d have to buy new batteries after this. Yubin saw that Handong had turned her head towards her quickly, it must’ve been her supernatural senses. She couldn’t tell because it was so dark, but it felt like she was making eye contact with her. Her throat seized and failed her. Instead, her still wanting to get closer, her right leg moved of its own according, stepping down to the next step, the one with a sheen of cold blood. She couldn’t stop, and deep down, though she’d never admit it, she didn’t want to stop. So even when her right leg completely missed the step down, and her left leg made no effort to help her stay upright, she continued to want to get closer. Even when she started falling. 

So, she fell.

This must’ve been what Handong had felt when she kept stumbling around. It was so scary but comforting, she couldn’t exactly do anything but fall, so she embraced it, that was what Handong had done previously. At least the bad design of the stairs did something. It let her keep falling, her chance of breaking her neck decreasing because of the stupid short steps, she’d probably end up tumbling and faceplanting on the ground. What if she breaks her nose? Meh, occupational hazard. Wind whipped her face, time crawled. Her heart sank, but she didn’t react, what was the point in screaming or flailing her arms, it would just worsen the situation. She felt the sinking, pull of gravity, the solid wooden floor greeting her with open arms.

It wasn’t the hard surface that greeted her after being in the air for a second a half, but a soft thud. Tumbling on that soft thud for a while. Landing safely and partly dryly on the first floor of the building.

“Ow~”

The soft thud could talk. Yubin tilted her head up at said soft thud. 

It was Handong, who else of course. One of Handong’s arms was wrapped around Yubin’s head and the other around her neck, protecting her from breaking it, pulling her towards her chest vigilantly; and although they’d finished falling, she was still clutching her tightly. Their legs were slightly tangled together. Yubin could feel a heat emanate from Handong’s core. Her hands were strangely warm too. It was so different from the icy hands she’d came into contact before.  
Here, the moon decided to share its ever-present wisdom and light, illuminating her face. Her skin was glowing, paler than before, but more alive than the first time she saw her. She looked ethereal. Her hair slightly coated in her own blood, her buns loosened and her hat slightly askew, somehow still on her head. The yellow piece of paper had been creased and the end was dipped in blood, but it was still as mysterious as ever. Handong’s lips were slightly parted, giving Yubin a clear view of her fangs, and she was muttering stuff in Chinese, things that Yubin couldn’t properly understand. 

Once she was out of her daze, she felt the pain start to settle in. 

Yubin must have subconsciously wrapped her arms around Handong’s waist whilst falling, as she didn’t recall doing it, but she could clearly feel the dull edge of the stairs, the biting pain, and the slight warmth of Handong in her arms. More bruises for later. She still couldn’t feel her legs, despite the battering that they had taken. Her back was also suffering, absorbing most of the pain of slamming onto the steps. However, Yubin knew that she wasn’t the one who had sustained most of the injuries and pain. 

Handong let out a groan of pain, Yubin feeling the vibrations of the sound clearly on her chest. “Why are you so stupid,” muttered Handong. She then let out a chuckle. The vibrations of it racking through both of their bodies. Handong pulled herself upwards, one arm still grasping Yubin and the other pushing against the bloody floor. She wasn’t looking at Yubin, instead still thinking of what to do next and how to not be an inconvenience to Yubin. It looked like she would be stuck with her, no matter how hard she tried to let go and distance herself from her. Handong’s eyes wandered from the brightly shining moon that was barely visible to the glistening blood covered stairs and then to the light blotches of blood in Yubin’s hair. She tilted her head down to the living breathing human in her arms, smiling at her stupidity, Yubin had settled her head down near the crook of Handong’s neck. 

After what had felt like an hour, Handong released her legs from Yubin’s and stood up, Yubin still holding onto her, Handong still holding onto Yubin. 

The feeling in Yubin’s legs was still completely gone.

She was positioned so that she was piggybacking Handong. Legs wrapped around her body and arms flung on her shoulders, fiddling with her hands, and sighing into Handong’s hair. Handong started walking, unsure of how badly she was taking in the other woman’s life but just trying not to and being wary of it; whether or not it helped, she didn’t know. But of course, with Yubin closer to her, she gained more strength, though the difference was not as marginally large as the last time it had happened – and that was because it was an accident and unchecked.

She walked past the pool of blood and approached the stairs to the ground floor. The occasional static of the disregarded walkie talkie ruining the light and pure silence. Yubin’s legs had loosened from Handong’s body – requiring Handong to support them with her arms – and her hands were loosely linked by the index fingers; her heart and breathing rate slowed down. It was safe to say that she was asleep, or in between the hazy blur of consciousness and unconsciousness and ready to fall asleep. Handong took a slow step down, going to great lengths to not to wake the sleeping beauty. When she had completed the first step down, she carefully repeated her actions until the twenty first step, the ground floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be out in 3 days! Stay tuned  
(probably extremely late but oh well, what is sleep to me)


	7. The Outside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually finished this chapter on the deadline but the internet was off when I finished it so... but I was able to fix all the grammatical errors and edit better today so I'm hoping that it was a blessing disguised as a curse

It hurt. But she was so close to her, even though at the beginning she didn’t want to be, but now she didn’t want to part. Plus, it really was the only way that Yubin could stay close to her and move about. And for some reason, Handong had an inkling of a feeling that she wouldn’t let go of her even if she tried. 

The three cuts on her neck, when grazed by stray strands of hair, or the occasional touch of Yubin’s arms, would flare out in a hot burst of pain and fade quickly back to nothingness. The large slash on her back, although healing a rate that would be alarmingly fast for a human, was flashing with heat, aching and burning with a scorching white pain that could only be described in English words as unbearable. The weight of carrying Yubin was less of a problem to her than she had initially thought it would be as she had not slowed down in walking speed despite the extra weight and the extra pain. 

This was supposed to be the floor of freedom. 

It would all end when they exit that front door. At least that was what she wished would happen.

What would even happen afterwards? Things wouldn’t just return to normal; they still had the killer(s) to find; Yubin, a job to do, and what to do with herself? She wasn’t exactly a ghost, she wouldn’t disappear after the killer gets served justice, she wouldn’t go back to being alive, as that meant going back to being dead. She couldn’t just go back to the pre-killed Handong’s life, as she wasn’t pre-killed Handong: she didn’t share her memories (or rather the emotional effect of them); she didn’t share her personality (at least the one that her close friends would recognise); the only thing that they had in common was their appearance. Even that was debatable now – with the addition of long claws and fangs appearing and her now worryingly grey toned skin. 

What was she?

“Look, I don’t know either Singnie! I want to find them as soon as possible, I’m not the one lounging about in her crush’s house. Sorry, I didn’t mean to – I’m just really tired, it’s late and I’m worried about them, you know how air-headed Yooh can be sometimes.”

It was that Minji woman again, hadn’t she left yet? Some treading sounds and sharp crunching of dead leaves. She was walking in circles. That’s what it had sounded like to Handong anyway. She felt a surge of energy.

“Who? Gah-Gahyeon? Wasn’t she the one I used to copy off even though she’s like… half my age?”

Handong took a couple of cautious steps towards the main entrance of the building, hoping that it would help her hear what ‘Singnie’ was saying on the other line. Silence still. She’d have to move closer. Yubin’s body pressed onto her wound with every step forward, the pain getting number and more bearable with each step closer to the door. She was definitely asleep now, her arms flopped over her shoulders and crossed over Handong’s bosom, legs being supported by her, nose nuzzled into Handong’s hair and her chest slowly rising and falling taking deep breaths. 

Handong took more cautious steps towards the door, lightly treading on the floor, wary of the random items strewn across it and some blood as well, the pain of Yubin constantly pressing onto her wound nearly gone. She concentrated on the sounds on the other side of the door. She walked closer to it, as quiet as ever, Minji not reacting to the subtle sounds coming from inside the abandoned building; too busy chatting and ranting to ‘Singnie’. 

Handong leaned towards the door, it creaked silently forwards. Then she pushed the door all the way, taking a hasty step, blinded by the undisturbed light of the moon in The Outside.

It was cold. It was windy. It was white. 

Where were the trees? Where were the occasional clouds? Where was Minji? Where was she?

There were large long webs spanning across the sky, and from there, to the ground; it seemed to be as wide as it was long too. This was impossible. She took another step forward. A crunch. A soft crunch, unlike the crunching of leaves signalling the start of autumn that she heard from Minji’s feet. The ground was white and soft. Snow. That was what had blinded her, the crisp untouched snow and the perfect reflection of the moon’s light. The ground glowed pristinely, a white wonderland. Handong looked behind her. She, in contrast, had left a trail of bloody footprints, compressing the snow into an ugly, muddied version of what it had been. She tilted her head upwards to the sky strung with webs and saw a single snowflake, lumpy and grey flutter towards another more perfect but still imperfect snowflake. They came together, and fell on Yubin’s nose, melting slowly.

Yubin, stirred, the cool of The Outside and the nipping wind and that one conjoined snowflake waking her from her short slumber. 

She was outside? No, this wasn’t what it was like outside the building. There wasn’t snow outside. There was a significant lack of trees here as well. She looked around, unfamiliar with the surroundings, swinging her legs whilst roaming her eyes around the scenery; it would’ve been pretty had it not isolated them from everyone. Wait. She could swing her legs. She lifted them, and then squeezed them together, nearly crushing Handong. Yubin, mumbled into Handong’s hair, “I can move my legs.” She tested once more, rolling her feet then swinging her legs with more fury, nearly toppling the two over with how much she was pushing Handong’s ability to balance the two. 

Handong lowered her to the ground slowly. Missing the touch and warmth of Yubin’s body on hers as soon as she stood by herself with no support.

She really could move her legs. She felt the surge of power and pull of muscles when she took a step backwards. She shifted her weight from the balls of her feet to her heels and then continued to rock back and forth. Another step backwards and a small hop back towards Handong. She vowed to never take her legs for granted ever again in that moment. 

Yubin took a deep breath in, no more burning, no more pain, no more sore muscles. The air in The Outside was different too. The Outside, it was so different from the actual outside that surrounded the building. Yubin could recall clearly the undead trees that surrounded the apartment complex – or whatever it was before it was abandoned – because it was what had drawn her to this area in the first place. She closed her eyes, picturing the small footpath she trailed while alone in the dense, lively forest; there were no animals in the area as far as she could tell, but it felt alive and was calling her attention to something. She had lost track of what time it was and how long she had been following the path, it felt like hours but she knew that it was just her mind’s paranoia creeping in, it had only been a few minutes she assured herself; or maybe the small enjoyment she felt when venturing out like a kid had distorted her sense of time and made the hours feel like minutes. It didn’t matter, as she bumped into the building, quite literally, with her mind roving and wandering and wondering and dazed.

Yubin opened her eyes holding her breath. The building was weird, strangely out of place, architecture similar but too different from the other residential buildings and local shops from the area she had parked her car. The entrance was a pull door. And it was there where she began her journey to meet Handong. And she let her breath out.

Handong on the other hand was struggling in The Outside. It was something about how the wind seemed to only take kindly to Yubin, caressing her face gently, stroking her hair, but slapping Handong in the face and sending her bangs all the way back to China that made her feel uneasy about this new place. Okay, so maybe it was an exaggeration in Handong’s part about how her hair was getting messy, but her eyes would have been watering from the dryness the wind wanted to gift her oh so kindly with had she been capable of feeling the awkward dryness that it imparted. Her body was shivering with a coldness that she had never felt post-transformation, so she crept closer to the walking radiator that was Yubin. 

Yubin in turn put an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, noticing the small shivers and warming up motions that Handong was making. Wow was she cold. Colder than the first time she met her. But she wasn’t stiff nor getting less human (in terms of behaviour) so she assumed it had something to do with The Outside. Whatever it was anyway. Another dimension? A pocket reality? Whatever it was, since it was causing distress to Handong, Yubin didn’t like it; although she did like the opportunity to get close to her once more. 

Handong hummed in delight at the warmth of Yubin’s body, almost purring. She was not only warm in temperature, but a brilliant candle that was melting any doubt and anxiety she had of this strange new place and the prospects of the future. 

The bright light from the moon and ground was unsettling to Handong, it was flawless, and nothing should be. She focused her eyes into the webs in the distance, it looked to be getting thicker and thicker until all she could see was a darkness weaved by webs. How the webs could reach the sky, ceiling? Whatever was above them was a mystery, it was theoretically impossible. Maybe it curved to form a sphere and encapsulated the area, but she couldn’t tell, and couldn’t just guess with little to no evidence. 

Handong slipped a hand into the back pocket of Yubin’s trousers and began walking, slowly, to the forest of webs. Yubin complied. Little words were exchanged, a serene silence washing over them, a mutual understanding that what they wanted to do was less important than what they needed to do. Both of their minds focusing on The Outside and its abnormalities. 

They reached the webs. Inches away from them. 

Yubin wanted to touch it, reaching out ever so slightly, but didn’t, knowing that it could be dangerous; anything here could be. Handong stuck her hand out and swiped the strings from the air, it was thin, fragile and slightly sticky, like a normal cobweb. She reached deeper, and when her swatting hand bounced back instead of breaking the greyer strings at the back, she grabbed them by the fistful and pulled. It was heavy, but she was able to pull them out, the sounds of individual threads snapping and breaking in the tension escaping and pouring into their ears. 

She stumbled back, stabilised by Yubin, the hard crunch of the freezing snow and the warm hands on her back and the rope-like substance in her hands reminding her of something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1.88k words :')  
Stream Deja Vu in the DC Official and Genie channel y'all


	8. One Punch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...  
Another update in 3 days?  
Yeah?
> 
> Yup?
> 
> Cool?  
…  
Am sorry

Handong rolled the grey rope between the tips of her fingers. It felt familiar. She righted herself. The rope of the web in her fingers were starting to unravel from the twisting motions she was making and was fraying away into the air, some chunking off and flying, some disappearing into thin air – due to the friction created from the pads of her fingers. Yes, the weird properties were oh so familiar. 

She held it in front of Yubin.

Yubin tentatively raised her hand and picked up the rope with the very tip of her fingers. The part that was held by her fingers completely disappeared and fell. But it was caught with her quick reflexes. It looked like it had sublimated when it fell on Yubin’s hand, but there was no gas escaping: just an empty palm and 2 bewildered faces. Ah yes, Yubin was much warmer than she was.

A stray strand from the rope flew into Handong’s direction and gently grazed her neck. Yubin eyed it. It looked dangerously close to her wounds, although they did look to have healed quite well in the short span of time that she had last payed attention to it. The wind continued its passive aggressive attitude towards the jiangshi and as such, the frayed web inched closer, closer, closer to the beginning of the cuts. Yubin raised her hand, reaching out, and lightly, tentatively, carefully pulled the stray strand with her fingernails – making sure not to make contact with her skin. When she had successfully removed the frayed rope from Handong’s neck, the wind decided to be a pain and change its direction, whipping the string straight onto the wound that Yubin tried so desperately to not touch.

A pause.

A held breath.

A reactionless face.

Yubin let go of the web, letting it haphazardly slink away with the wind as its guide. She reached out and traced the edge of one of the slashes. It was starting to form a scab. It wasn’t like this last time she saw it in the inside of the building. She moved herself so she could see the other wounds but surely enough, they had nearly vanished, a relatively thin scar was left where she had leaned onto her back, and the slice down her leg thinner but still raw and red and it too was starting to scab. Still no entrance or exit wounds. It was as if she hadn’t shot her twice. Curious, she lightly punched Handong.

“Ow~”

Handong doubled over, crouching on the floor, curling up in a ball.

Okay, so she might’ve punched her quite hard where the liver was and that might be one of the most unprotected areas of the body – especially for an important organ. 

Strange.

Still in pain, Handong looked up to see only a small twitch of Yubin’s eyebrows and a blank stare, “Why – why would you do that?”

Yubin held her right hand out and shrugged while doing so, “I’m experimenting.”

“Oh wow. How nice of you,” with a scoff, Handong took the offered hand, the beginnings of a mischievous smile forming and a twinkle in her eyes that she hadn’t had since last alive.

“I know.” She deadpanned before abruptly being pulled to ground by Handong.

Snow shoved in her face, she finally discovered the true frost and cold of The Outside, Yubin flipped over, facing the endless webbed sky; but not one to be outdone she forcibly pulled Handong over and onto the floor too. Then, Handong also discovered the experience of the frigid snow, except her bare legs would complain of the unfairness of her situation because, compared to the trousers that Yubin was wearing, her skin offered less protection against the cold and wetness of the snow. Thankfully though, she wasn’t face first in the snow, although it was quite pillow-like and soft, it would have been so unpleasant. 

None of them let of the other’s hand.

They watched as the light of the full moon stared at the building, the moon stubbornly staying in the same spot, refusing to move. The webbed sky was as strange as ever. It did seem to warp into a spherical shape, though how big the sphere is and if it was like a planet, probably not due to the gravity being relatively the same but the curve bring more extreme meaning that it would have to be extremely dense if it were, or not occupying both of their thoughts for a while. A particularly shiny string let out a glint of light which a star would normally produce. It was so dark but so bright. 

There was a slight shift in the snow, Handong turned her head towards Yubin.

Then Yubin to Handong.

Their eyes met, this time, Yubin got a clear view of Handong and Handong another look at Yubin. 

Yubin’s eyes were dark. There was an alluring darkness in the depths of them. It was difficult to differentiate between the beginning of her pupils and the end of her irises. They were black holes, drawing her deeper into a world with and of Yubin, and she was far past the event horizon; the further in she was getting, the faster she was falling. Deeper and deeper, faster and faster with seemingly no end.

Yubin was the first to let go.

She was grateful for the coldness of the snow for cooling her burning cheeks and preventing her from feeling the burn of prolonged eye contact. 

She stood up, patting the snow off her trousers and readjusting her tie, loosening it a tad, before once again offering a hand up to Handing, “I didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s – it’s just that – that… I want to make sure we know your limitations before we do anything hasty, especially in this new Outside.”

‘I don’t want you to be hurt because I care about you.’ Is what it translated to. And Handong couldn’t be anymore elated to hear that.

Hearing the sincerity in her voice, seeing the way the corners of her eyes slightly drooped in sadness and shame and the knitting of her eyebrows and the slight pout on her lips, Handong gladly took the offered hand, satisfied with the apology, and pulled herself upright. No tricks. No games. Her free hidden behind her back.

Except her free hand wasn’t really free. It was occupied. With a fistful of compact snow. She’d get her revenge somehow, and that somehow was through a snowball. And with all the strength of a flailing baby, she threw it. 

It landed squarely on Yubin’s cheek and slipped down onto her shirt and then flopped to the floor.

She arched an eyebrow high and smiled a wry smile.


	9. Yoohyeon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I finished the final proofreading yesterday (the deadline) at 22:20 when the wi-fi was off :/. I'm back to >1.6K this chapter! 
> 
> Huuuuuuuuuu 
> 
> 3-4 days - the next update

Tired. Exhausted. Cold and wet.

That’s the state that the 2 were in before it happened. On the snow, spread eagle with her chest heaving was Yubin, utterly winded from chasing the jiangshi and pelting her with small, soft, crumbling snowballs and with a surprising good accuracy rate. She was sweating, barely, and the condensed air showed the world each breath she blew out. 

Handong was crouched on the floor, pouting. All of her snowballs had missed Yubin somehow: whether it was because she had bad aim; she didn’t throw with enough power; or that Yubin was just really good at dodging balls, she didn’t know. What she did know was that her back was freezing from the multiple snowballs thrown at her whilst she attempted to retreat from the flurry of snowballs that faced her. It was maybe a good thing that she missed all of her throws though, as when Handong reflected back on the snowballs she had made, she clearly remembered crushing them nearly to a singularity – harder than diamond and stronger than steel. 

Yubin, clearly enjoying her legs too much, stood; a small satisfactory smile forming in congratulations to herself and her legs for working. She waltzed over to Handong, an air of superiority to her walk, almost as if to mock Handong’s clear loss in their one-sided brawl. 

Drained from their snowball fight, Yubin plopped down and leaned onto Handong’s now near frozen back. Arms loosely wrapped around Handong and cheek rubbing against the top of the exposed scar. Although her face was cold from being shoved into snow, the fact that it felt slightly cooler near the scarred skin indicated a frigid back; or person in general.

“Are you cold? I’m sorry, but you kind of deserve it.” Yubin pulled Handong closer to her. No reply. “Aww~ don’t be so mad. You’re the one who started it anyway,” she began poking Handong’s face randomly.

With a frustrated huff, “I just can’t believe that none, NONE, of my snowballs hit you. What is the probability! Are you secretly a witch?” Handong threw her hands in the air and broke the embrace of Yubin’s arms, only to realise quickly and pull Yubin’s arms back around her body.

“What are the odds, you mean.”

Another huff of frustration from Handong, “I already hate you; you know.”  
Handong turned her head so that she could see her only to see that Yubin had broken out into a mischievous smile, replying with nothing from her mouth but her face clearly telling Handong, ‘I already love you; you know.’ They stayed in that position for quite a while. Handong glowing from the warmth that Yubin gladly shared from the back hug and Yubin too afraid of what was to come to separate. But as they both knew; all good things must come to an end.

And it ended with a shriek. 

A girlish, high-pitched scream that came from far away. From the building.

Handong had her mouth open, forgetting what she was about to say before she was cut off by the screech. They both rushed towards the building, the light-hearted atmosphere disintegrating by the second. 

Yubin had arrived slightly earlier than Handong to the entrance of the building. She pulled one of doors and stepped inside. She took a step forwards into the building, immediately feeling a dread, like the world was weighing on her shoulders, pull her down. She then pushed with her other leg and nearly collapsed to the floor. The Outside must have done something to Handong’s ability to suck life or done something to inhibit it, because the helplessness she felt when paralysed flooded her senses again. She was on one knee when Handong came to her side, worried, now more so than before. Handong fussed over her, apologising profusely.

She ushered Handong into the building, telling her not to worry about it. She patted her belt loops, ignoring the gun and then finally found what she was looking for, a baton. She firmly placed it in Handong’s hands and told her, “Go.”

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to send Handong away, but she couldn’t feel pain – except the one time she punched her in The Outside – she was immortal? At least she hoped so. 

Maybe Handong shouldn’t have complied so easily, but that cry sounded familiar. Oh, so familiar.

. 

.

.

Yubin scanned across the room. The door half open, revealing the white reflection of the moonlight emanating from outside the door and the chilly winds indicated that The Outside was indeed real; but the dark, dense forest seen through the windows indicated something entirely different.

This was so confusing.

The room was left just like it was the last time she stormed the building. Except her flashlight was not illuminating it but the dim glow from The Outside. The floor. Yes, that same dark veneer and that same shiny varnish that assisted her with crawling across the ground. The abandoned desks and scattered paper. The slight blood sprayed on the floor. The tip of the sole of her boot that left a bloody footprint trail for a couple of steps. That 21 stepped flight of stairs with the matching wood handrail. 

Wait.

Reluctantly, she ripped her attention down from the stairs to the scattered paper on the floor to the blood. Where was the body.

Where was the clown girl? 

And before her mind could create multiple theories, hypotheses and answers. She felt a shiver travel up her spine.

A cold blunt ended object pushed forcefully down against the small of her back, applying pressure to the small bruises formed when she fell down the stairs. It unwillingly lowered her closer to the ground. And before she could so much as turn around to see who or what was baring down on her, another cold blunt ended object smashed her head onto the wooden floor. Her left leg finally gave into the new weight on her body and her body crashed to the floor alongside her head; the other bruise that came from slamming against the handrail pulsing in hot white pain.

Through the fabric of her uniform, she felt small hairs nearly splinter into her skin.

Another shiver ran up her spine.

.

.

.

Handong ran up the stairs. The room she died in. Her blood on the floor, on the handrail, on the wall, on the stairs. The 2 times she fell down the staircase – once with severe pain, then again but with a lack of pain and a short woman in her arms. She slowed her pace down. A glove on the floor. A discarded walkie talkie that was still speaking in static. It wasn’t that long ago that she encountered Yubin was it? Time. She couldn’t even tell what where seconds, minutes and hours now; not that her sense of time was any better when she was alive. Handong hopped over her pool of blood zealously and rushed to the stairs. Seeing the sliver of the glare of the moon peaking from the top of the staircase. 

Up the staircase, one foot 2 steps at a time. Passing by the seventh step up and the seventh step down with ease. 

A circle of blood and chalk lay on the floor near fallen rope and a lone chair. ‘This time for sure,’ mused Handong, her pursuit halted in favour of another more personal quest. 

She started with the rope again. It frayed into the air after aggressively being rolled around and pulled on. It must have been why she was able to escape in the first place. She hung the other piece of “rope” in front of her, a dark nearly black grey. The webs. What was going on in this place. It was just one mystery after another.

Then she whipped her head to the knife. Or where it should have been. Instead was a pool of blood. 

It’d have to do for now, settled Handong. She swiped the blood from where the knife was and waited for a reaction. 

And waited. 

Until finally she saw a glimmer of red and heard the demonic voice from her best friend – no that wasn’t her friend anymore. It was something else. A demon, a ghost, a spirit: whatever it was, it meant bad news. The once warm brown eyes were dead and showed no sign of life. But she remembered why that scream sounded familiar. It was when she could hear but not see or move. When her body couldn’t even hop, and she was neither a dead human nor an undead jiangshi. The screech of her best friend and not the demon.

She cautiously headed towards last flight of stairs. This was the end of the beginning. To the roof of the building. It was going to be where everything was going to be decided.

. 

.

.

Sitting on the edge of the metal fence, Yoohyeon swung her legs. All she was able to do for the past few hours were watch and listen helplessly. Until she was able to fight in the last moment.

Watch as she put the wrong address into Google Maps. Listen as she heard the exciting squeals of Handong, and the demon whisper how sweet it was going to be. Watch as she knocked Handong out when she checked Siyeon’s message on her phone. Listen to the muffled squeals of her close friend as she begged in an incoherent mess of Chinese and Korean. Watch her now sharp inhuman claw dig into Handong’s neck, once to draw the circle, then again to draw the star, then once more just so that stupid demon got to watch her cry in discomfort. Listen to her wails of agony. Watch as she escaped the webs that the demon produced sickeningly from her body. Listen to her screeches as she plunged the knife into her back followed by her scoring a deep cut onto her running legs and the thuds of her dying body as it tumbled down the stairs. Watch her chest rise and lower, slower and slower. Listen to the silent night. Before she was able to take back consciousness for a few seconds, torn from the grief.

Then, she rose, walking up the stairs that was now coated in her friend’s blood. Picking up the knife, the demon begging her to stop, and plunging it into her stomach, twisting it and then pulling it out. Then it was her blood that coated the stairs. Doubling the volume of blood. The demon in her took over. Haphazardly trying to clog the wound with webs. Succeeding, if only until they reached the ground floor and she died. From internal bleeding.

But the spider demon was not ready to die yet. Not after all of it’s hard work. So, with all of its might and dying life and fading energy, it was able to revive Yoohyeon and escape back into its realm.


	10. Dami

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: torture
> 
> The chelicerae is like the jaw/mandible of a spider. They don't have any. Also the spinneret is the part of the spider that produced webs, located at the bottom of the spider's abdomen.

The hairs from the object that pushed on her moved due to the wind. It felt so unsettling. 

Another one of those objects slammed onto the ground near her, where her head was facing. Her eyes looked at it up and down. It was tapered near the end and covered in short spiky hairs. It was cream in colour but had bands of dark and light brown all over it. It was a leg. And it got thicker the further up she looked. She held her breath. Jesus Christ it was a spider. A huge spider. The size of a small car. And it was so heavy and so strong. With each second that passed by the pressure on her back was getting lighter, ever so slightly; but this did nothing to alleviate her fears.

The spider fully raised the leg on her head. With this opportunity, she craned her neck to see the entirety of it. It had 6 beady black eyes. Her stomach dropped. It made eye contact with her. Or it was just eying its new prey. She quickly averted her eyes from its several ones, what if it could sense her fear. She didn’t even have arachnophobia but anything creepy and huge was bound to strike panic into her; that’s anxiety for you. 

A weird sound erupted from above her, she strained her neck towards it, careful to not see any of its eyes. 

Its ‘mouth’ was opening. It had sharp fangs in front of it, it lifted its fangs and revealed its chelicerae slowly. At the tips of the fangs she could see a liquid coming out of it: venom. Some of the venom dripped near her face, corroding the floor. She whipped her head away in disgust and fear. 

At first, she thought she was imagining it, but it soon became apparent that her paranoia wasn’t getting the best of her. The spider was encasing her in webs. She pushed her upper body off the floor and tried to drag herself away from that demon spider thing, but it shifted one of its many legs to pin her arms and her head down again to the ground. This was sickening. All she wanted to do was escape but her legs just wouldn’t move.

Her heartbeat was accelerating. And quickly. Never in her life did she ever think she’d encounter such a horrifying creature.

Its hairs were sharp and piercing through her uniform, poking her skin in unpleasant ways. Her scalp felt so uncomfortable, wisps of frayed webs falling onto it and clinging to her hair as well as the spine-like hair stabbing her head. A veil soon covered her. It was a dark grey and the individual strings seemed thick too, nearly the diameter of her pinky finger. It didn’t look dissimilar to the rope on the 2nd floor of the building. God damn it. Of course, the supernatural had a hand in this mystery, no wonder she couldn’t even –

The weight on her disappeared. 

Then as soon as it disappeared, another lighter weight was on her back and a hand grabbed a fistful of her hair and slammed it to the floor. She didn’t even bother lifting it back up when the hand was released from her head. “That’s a good girl.” 

The voice of a middle-aged woman. 

The demon woman took the strings and span it into an even thicker more resistant rope, not keen to repeat its mistake that it made with Handong again. With the new rope, it tied Yubin’s hands behind her back. At least that was what would have happened had it been strong enough to battle against Yubin’s resistance. Like hell she’d give up this easily.

It was much easier to do things with a young, fresh, uninhabited body; like Yoohyeon’s. But this was the last and only usable body that the demon had been able to use, it may have deteriorated a bit since the last time it transformed, but it had hands and apposable thumbs. 

It’d have to do something to break this human’s spirit. She couldn’t be manipulated like that other Chinese one as she wasn’t in possession of a loved one.

This’d be fun.

Yubin, hands free and not paralysed, attempted to break the veil of webs around her, pulling hard, but nothing budged or broke. Not even the warmth of her hands was affecting the web. Whilst this happened, she noticed the shadow of the woman move in ways that would require broken bones and dislocated joints and then from the broken body emerged the spider. She didn’t understand, nor did she want to. The shadow transformation already looked disturbing; she’d never want to see it in real life. 

The spider crawled to the corner of the room. It began spinning a web meticulously. It was quick and proficient. Before Yubin was able to collect her thoughts, her stomach was kicked by the woman. Hard. The rings from her breast pocket rolled onto the floor with a clink. She began to instinctively go into a fetal position to protect and nurse her new injury, but she realised her hands were stuck to the veil of webs, she couldn’t move them – when did it become so sticky? Yubin shut her eyes closed, bracing herself for whatever was to come next. She was able to shift her arms a bit closer to protect herself before she got kicked again. And she got rolled around the webs, forming a sort of a net around her, and with that, the woman transformed back into its true demon form and dragged Yubin across the floor. Wiping Yoohyeon’s blood on her trousers.

It held Yubin in the air, turning her around and encasing her further in the webs produced by its spinneret. When she was sufficiently unable to move, it chucked her against the web in the corner, it caught her before she was able to crash against the wall. 

A hand stroked her face. Yubin opened her eyes. The possessed woman smiled a malevolent smile to her, a dark shadow falling over its dead eyes. This was bad. Yubin knew that this was only the start.

Sharp nails scratched down from her jaw and all the way down to the collar of her shirt. No blood was drawn. But it was painful, leaving a stinging pulsing pain down her neck. Yubin, trying not to look at it, stared off into the distance, focusing on the ajar door and the snow on the ground of The Outside. The demon, unsatisfied with her reaction – or lack thereof – loosened the tie around her collar and undid the first 2 buttons of her shirt. It was going to enjoy this. It opened its mouth, showing its inhuman fangs to her for a split second and bit into her neck, tearing off a small chunk of her skin and peeling the first few layers off her neck. 

This time, it was rewarded with a small cry. This was satisfying, but it knew it could do better, and knowing that Handong was far too far away and probably dealing with something else, it would be able to relish in this torture before carrying out the ritual again.

The woman waited until Yubin laid her eyes on it before opening its mouth and speaking, “I hope you don’t mind this. I know you’re not supposed to play with your food, but when your food is as adorable and fun as this, who could resist.” Another malevolent smile. Yubin didn’t know what was creepier: the short haired woman with the demonic voice or the giant many-eyed spider with its viscous venom.

The woman dug her claws into the new wound it created on Yubin’s neck, and it stung like a bitch. This time, Yubin let out a short yelp. Music to its ears. So, it dug harder and pulled abruptly, tearing more into her skin and deepening the wound. Yubin’s yelp turning into a low groan before it let go and was a panting mess. This was the most fun it had in ages – other than tricking the 2 other girls. It untucked her shirt and racked its claws deeply down the length of her torso, prickling her skin with beads of blood, definitely leaving behind some scars. Above Yubin’s collarbone, it tore off a long piece of flesh off and scraped a claw against the bone of her collarbone, the vibrations causing a discomfort similar to nails on a chalkboard.

It revelled in her restrained screams, but it wasn’t enough; why wouldn’t she scream properly, this was becoming more a hassle than it should be.

It yanked Yubin’s left hand off the web and stared at it. Its smile became wider. It placed the hand back to the web and came closer to Yubin. It shoved the claw of its index finger underneath her right hand’s middle finger’s nail and pushed towards the bed of her nail, drawing some blood, and then, for support, it gripped the nail with a thumb and pulled upwards. A sharp gasping sound immediately left Yubin. It wasn’t going to do what she thought it was. Was it? A small tear occurred near the nail bed and her skin. Small beginnings of a scream were forming. More blood began to pour out of her middle finger’ tip. The scream died out to heavy breaths. The tip of her nail was detached from the bed. It wasn’t even ripping it off quickly, it was tearing her nail off slowly, with purpose and intent. This was torture for sake of torture. 

After a second of deliberation, it ripped her nail off her fingernail.

She let out a scream and thrashed about, loosening the webs.

It was all that the demon needed to be satiated. It missed being feared for so long.

Her middle finger was covered in blood. The woman lifted the hand off the web, Yubin wincing in pain, and inspected its handiwork. There was still a third of her nail left, but otherwise, a good rip; if you ignored all the blood of course. It twisted the finger a bit, Yubin letting out another hiss of pain, the nail that was still left wasn’t ripped off cleanly, the right and left sides were bit longer than the middle, creating an upside-down U shape. It wasn’t her problem anyway, who was she to care.

Yubin’s left arm shifted. 

“Shall we go to the next one?” Said the woman. 

Why were the webs so sticky? They weren’t so sticky in The Outside, or maybe it was because they were old. Yubin could barely move her arms or even her head, except her left hand was a bit more freed than the rest of her body – but that was because it was removed and the webs around it were severed. “Let’s go from the longest fingers to the shortest.”

“’Let’s’?”, Yubin scoffed and through clenched teeth said, “there’s no ‘us’ in this.”

The demon only hummed back in reply and then squeezed the nail-less fingertip of her finger, she cried in agony at the sudden spike in pain. It moved its hand to Yubin’s index finger, inspecting it. This’d do. She had such long fingers.

This time, it was even slower, more excruciating. A claw slid underneath the nail bed of her index finger. She saw it go deeper, until a jolt of pain told her that it was successfully digging its claw into her nailbed. 

But before it could leverage the index fingernail and rip it off, it saw the glint of light shine to its right. Behind Yubin’s back was something. 

The demonic woman stepped closer, intrigued, halting her torture temporarily. It reached behind and around Yubin’s waist. Yubin began visibly panicking, trying to lean backwards or break out of these stupid sticky strings. It patted her back and felt the cold metal of her gun and her warm hand.

A gunshot.

Then another.

Then another.

Then another.

And a scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2,001 words :')
> 
> This part 1 out of 3 of the finale!
> 
> There's going to be a sequel out though don't worry. :)


	11. Handong

Yoohyeon had the knife in her hands. She twirled it. Blood from both her and Handong painted it in deep reds. Rushed footsteps echoed from inside the building to The Outside. The creak of the door signalled that it was being opened tentatively. Slowly, lifelessly, she turned her head to see familiar orange hair and that jiangshi costume she jokingly bought for her the week before Halloween. How ironic. 

Handong looked like a mess: to say the least. Her low buns were now loose, and nearly undone, small chunks of her hair were covered in dried blood. The yellow talisman looked like it had been dipped in blood. The hat on her head was also slightly askew. And grasped securely in her left hand was a police baton. She was obviously not prepared for this.

Yoohyeon fully turned her body around to face Handong and hopped off the fence gently.

Handong stared blankly and squarely at her. She didn’t know how or what to feel.

It didn’t even seem like Handong recognised her for what she was: a good friend; her occasional roommate; her unofficial translator; her project partner back when they were in school. It didn’t even seem to be Handong: she didn’t rush to her side like she would’ve; she didn’t flash her a comforting smile; she didn’t hold herself with the same air; she didn’t even stand in the same manner.

This thing, however much it resembled her. It wasn’t Handong.

“Leave me alone Handong, or whatever you are,” said Yoohyeon. She was so close to the edge.

“I don’t – I don’t know who you are much,” how was she supposed to express how she was feeling, this was more difficult than she had previously thought, “and all I remember is you kidnapping me – no, not you, your body, you were possessed? I – I’m sorry. From what I can recall, you and the – the old alive Handong seemed close. So, so very close.” 

Yoohyeon turned around with the balls of her feet, away from this Handong creature, facing the webbed sphere of The Outside, the moon boasting about its light, the snow glistening under its ego, the endless webs enveloping this strange realm. This place was so pretty. If only it didn’t harbour a vengeful and hungry demon. She didn’t want to face the outcome of her possession. She was the one who made Handong like this. This – this near amnesiac with poor oral skills. Her speech wasn’t arrogantly elegant. It was instead theatrical but awkward, it lacked her normal dramatic flair. Her posture was too much like when Yoohyeon first met her, back stiff and always straightened – with her chest out and shoulders rolled all the way back, breathing deeply with her diaphragm; if she was breathing in the first place. Her face was all too soft, no smugness in sight. What had she done?

Yoohyeon wanted so desperately to accept this and move on but this was so soon and happened with such little warning. And the sole fact that she was the one who caused this, she was the one who allowed these events to unfold, she was the one who dealt the final blow. She did this to herself. To Handong. 

She wanted to help her recover of course, but Yoohyeon was forgetful, not stupid. She knew that despite how hard you try, some amnesiacs never return to normal, some people who suffered brain damage completely change personalities, some people with dementia will never remember their loved ones. She was grieving the loss of the old Handong already; the living breathing Handong who snuck into her dorm when Gahyeon was being too loud; the Handong who improved her Chinese so much; the Handong that made blunders in Korean; the Handong that ate hotpot for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

All of this was gone. Or at least not well remembered, as it seemed to be the case.

And maybe it was selfish of Yoohyeon to want this Handong to go back to the old Handong. Maybe she was selfish for wanting to rid of this new Handong. Maybe she was selfish for wanting to forget about everything. Maybe she was selfish for trying to run away. For wanting to run away. For running away from everything.

But who wouldn’t want their old friend back? She’d never come back. Never be Handong again. And it was all Yoohyeon’s fault.

“Yoohyeon,” Handong slowly called out. In response, Yoohyeon took a step forwards and turned to face her again.

Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed; eyes glistening slightly, likely due to tears; the beginnings of a frown forming at the corner of her lips, as if trying, and failing miserably, to conceal her resentment and sadness of the old Handong being irrevocably gone.

Handong had never really pondered too much about who she was. All she knew was that she wasn’t the old Handong. Was she – was she that different? She was a new person, right? Sure, she shared some memories of the old Handong but she was ultimately different; different in the way she reacted; different in the way she smiled; different in the way she talked; different in the way that the old Handong breathed subconsciously and had blood pumping up and down her veins and was a comforting temperature to cuddle with. She’d never thought of it being a bad thing but, because the present, new Handong existed, the old one ceased to. Did – was – it’s like murder. The old Handong may have been physically killed by the demon possessed Yoohyeon, but mentally and spiritually, she killed the old Handong. Her existence came from murder. She was birthed though death. She wouldn’t have existed had the old Handong survived. 

Handong looked at her fingers, hand, palm, wrist, forearm, elbow. It was the same as she could faintly remember – except her fingernails were strangely long and pointed. It must feel strange to see a loved one and know that they aren’t the one you were fond of. That they don’t remember you well. That they look the exact same but aren’t the same anymore.

Even Handong found it strange. She’d lived a life before. It wasn’t as if she reverted back to the mental age of 0, she was mature – at least she hoped she was – she had control of her body (now), she had fragments of the old Handong’s memory, but none of her personality. At least she thought so, it’s not as if you can remember your own personality. It just changes and through your actions you realise you’ve changed. 

“Yoohyeon,” she called out once more, this time, when Yoohyeon looked at her they shared eye contact, “I – I know this is soon, and I don’t want to put pressure on you so soon but do you know how to escape? Escape this place? The Outside?” Yoohyeon’s eyes looked like a puppy’s, wide and they were so sad. She was so sad. Who wouldn’t be?

“You,” muttered Yoohyeon under her breath, “you’re not Handong. What is this? What kind of joke is this?” Had Handong not had enhanced hearing due to her jiangshi powers, she wouldn’t have heard it so clearly, she wouldn’t have heard the wobbles in Yoohyeon’s voice or the shift of Yoohyeon’s feet backwards. It was like she hadn’t heard Handong speak.

Had it really been her hands that plunged this knife in Handong’s back? Yoohyeon took a step back. Had it really been her hands to paint a ritual circle on the floor? Handong returned with a shy step forward. Had it been her hands that wrenched the knife off her own body and fix the wound temporarily? Yoohyeon took a step backwards again. Had it been her to release the spider demon into this world? Another step backwards, bolder this time. 

Handong, seeing this, knowing and feeling what was going to happen ran. Would her enhanced strength allow her to reach Yoohyeon in time? How much distance did she have to cover? She was so close now. And Yoohyeon wasn’t making any move to go faster. She’d definitely reach her in time. Handong was face to face with Yoohyeon now.

A deep gasp came from Yoohyeon. “W – What is this? Are you stupid?” Yoohyeon’s eyes, if it were possible, looked even more puppy like and her eyebrows knitted together in shock more than sadness. Yoohyeon’s eyes looked down.

Handong felt a dull pain emanate from her side. She followed the clown-dressed girl’s eyes down. A knife. Inside her. 

Handong chuckled, “It’s fine. I’m okay, there’s no need to –” She felt lightheaded. A pounding in her skull. The pain in her side growing into an untameable hot beast. Handong’s hand slid down to where the knife was. Cold blood. But it was different this time, it flowed. It was flowing from her. It hurt so much. She was bleeding. She was feeling pain. She was dying again. 

Handong fell down to one knee, the grip on the baton loosening. With blurry hazy vision, she saw the outline of Yoohyeon approach the fence of the rooftop. She flung a leg over the rail. Then the other.

“How could she not see the knife? I – I didn’t even mean to – It was just a warning; you were just so fast… Maybe you’re not so different from the real Handong.” 

Yoohyeon took a step towards the edge of the rooftop. There was about a metre and a half of space left, probably more.

A loud thrashing scream came from the ground floor. 

She leaned forwards. Pushing off with a foot.

Handong, adrenaline rushing through her body, and with all the fading strength she had left, ran even faster.

She was in the air. Time crawling, taunting her to rethink her actions. There was no escape for her anyway. There was no point anymore. It couldn’t convince her otherwise. 

Handong grabbed her hand and pulled her back onto the roof, Handong shoved Yoohyeon against the cold lonely fence of the rooftop. The momentum of pulling Yoohyeon out of her jump causing Handong to fall forwards. They swapped positions.

Handong started falling, the wind calm, knowing that it wasn’t the time to antagonise her. Her grip on the baton tightened, as if it would save her; but she knew deep down that no one would or could. She started turning in the air uncontrollably. The blood from the stab wound left a path of blood in the air. She would’ve screamed had her mind not been disturbed by the scream from the ground floor. It was definitely Yubin. She shouldn’t have left her. But if she hadn’t, she would’ve left Yoohyeon to kill herself.

The burning sensation from the knife flared hotter and hotter. Pain was really hinderance to humans. How could they survive this long with this much pain? 

The Outside. It did something to her jiangshi powers. It was like she reverted to be a mortal, feeling the pain of Yubin’s punch and the knife and the fact that she was bleeding. Even the stinging from the slashes on her neck died down when she was reanimated. The bullets from Yubin’s gun when they first met did nothing, no entrance or exit wounds. ‘Would she die from the blood loss or fall first?’ pondered Handong morbidly.

Then before she hit the ground, she heard a gunshot. Then 3 more consecutive ones. 

Handong was face up. Grass blew against her face. It wasn’t the freezing embrace of the snow from the Outside that welcomed her awake. She felt down her body to the knife. No more spewing blood. It wasn’t The Outside. Then the grass shifted to snow, trees morphing in webs, and the pain returned. The pain then disappeared again and peering above her was Minji’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I was writing the Yoohyeon jump scene, Fly High (by Dreamcatcher of course) came on. And when I wrote about the gunshots, Bang Bang Bang (the Dreamcatcher one) also came up. Spooky
> 
> The end draws near
> 
> 2/3


	12. Jiu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I present to you the end of This is Halloween with the longest chapter yet!  
2.4K words.  
Enjoy :)

Minji turned around. 

She lowered her phone her eyes scanning up the building. Something felt off. “Wait, can you stay on the line a bit longer?” 

A thud behind her. 

She turned her head to see a faint grey toned woman facing the sky. Her face looking shell-shocked, though her eyes were closed so she couldn’t really tell. She had orange hair, which was in 2 low messy buns and bangs, all kept under a hat. Wait. That was Handong. What the – did she just fall from the sky? No way. “Singnie… You won’t believe this.”

“What happened now?” asked Siyeon, feigning annoyance, but very well aware of the severity of the situation and Minji’s tone, “Did you find one of them?” She quickly stood up off the couch, nearly spilling the red solo cup on her lap and grabbing the attention of the previously dozed off Gahyeon; who was leaning on Bora, who was leaning on the other side of the couch. 

Minji nodded, only to remember that she was on the phone and Siyeon couldn’t possibly see her, “Yeah… But she looks weird,” she took a step towards the jiangshi, “Dongie? DongDong?”

Siyeon, frustrated that she chose not to come with Minji now, interrogated her further, “What’s going on? Give me –”, Gahyeon elbowed her side, “Give us a play by play.” Siyeon placed her phone on speaker mode and gently placed it on a dry coaster mat. All three of the sleep deprived girls leaned towards the phone, attention grabbed by the drama unfolding before them. 

“Well, Dongie looks really pale, she looks like a ghost; like I could stick my hand through her. There’s – there’s a knife…”

Handong jolted awake.

“Ah!” Minji took a step backwards in surprise and when she came to, she rushed towards Handong’s side, only for her to be completely ignored and run towards the building.

“Dongie! Wait!”

Loudly, Bora shouted, “What’s going on? Hello?”

Minji followed Handong inside the building. But when she entered, there was no Handong.

Then a few minutes later, there she was, in front of her, with a policewoman clutched in her arms. 

Then they were gone again.

“Um. Guys. I think I’m hallucinating.”

A loud voice, “What’s going on?”, Bora of course.

“She was right there, then she wasn’t.” 

Quietly, Gahyeon asked Siyeon if Minji had drank anything before leaving because she was a lightweight, “I did not! And I’m not a light drinker.” Apparently not quite quiet enough.

A few minutes later, a gunshot reverberated through the room.

“Minji! Is that a gunshot I just heard or is that my weak alcohol tolerance!”

“I heard it too,” said Siyeon.

Gahyeon rolled her eyes, “That doesn’t help because you’ve both drank. But I heard it too.”

Another few minutes passed.

Minji’s eyes trailed towards the suddenly and newly appeared Handong, who was now pressing her hands onto the policewoman’s stomach. She saw a gun on the floor, near the officer’s hand. 

With a dry swallow she replied, “Yeah. There’s a gun here.”

.

.

.

Grass. No pain. No Bleeding. This wasn’t The Outside.

There was someone looking above her, but she couldn’t see properly, a fuzzy blonde blob with lipstick smeared all over her face and a maid (?) costume.

It didn’t matter who or what they were. What matters most is Yubin right now. Handong jolted upright and sprinted towards the building, adamant that she would save Yubin from whatever was going on. The pain was fading lightly in and out, The Outside dimension losing its stability. 

Handong pulled the door open.

Yubin was leaning forwards, the upper half of her body free from the web she was in. Beneath her was a giant beige-brown spider. It was scrunching up into a ball, clearly in pain. Not thinking much, Handong wrenched the knife out of her side when she felt the pain ebb away, relieved to see no bleeding and the familiar way that her jiangshi body repaired itself – slowly but surely. She tiptoed around the spider and heaved Yubin easily out of the web and gently placed her on the ground; glad to have her supernatural powers back. On her hand laid a gun. Near where the gun was 1 huge gaping exit wound, it looked like multiple gunshot wounds gathered closely together, and heavy bleeding. Handong’s eyes followed where Yubin’s bullets would’ve went, from behind her body, through herself and into the spider’s legs twice and then its body and one nearly splitting its chelicerae into 2 equal halves. Ouch.

The spider looked pathetic curled up on the floor like that. Handong took the gun off Yubin’s hand and once more shot it. The cause of all their troubles withering away with just 5 bullets. 

Handong approached the spider, a baton clutched in one hand and a knife in the other. This was the end. With sympathy more than fury, she smacked the spider’s abdomen to the floor so it would stop struggling as much – the more it’d move, the more painful its death would be. She raised the knife, dropping the baton, and with both hands on the handle, stabbed straight through the spider’s head and dragged the knife all the way to the end of its body. For a while, it laid there squirming about. Then it stopped moving. Then it started to fade away into a black cloud and then there was no one left but the 2 of them again. Not a trace of the chaos that had just occurred.

Handong went to Yubin’s side and pressed onto the self-inflicted gunshot wound to stop her from bleeding out. She was still alive. She was still conscious actually, with the way that the end of her lips slightly turned up to form a lopsided smile when she heard the gunshot and squeal of the dying spider and how she hummed quietly when she felt the refreshing cool of Handong’s hand press onto her burning wound.

“Dongie?” A shy voice asked for her. It was that Minji woman, right?

She racked her brain for memories of her previous life.

“Hello!” A loud voice arose from Minji’s phone, “What’s going on! Are you in danger?”

Ah yes! If she recalled properly, Minji and Yoohyeon were close friends. This was almost too perfect.

“Yoohyeon. You should see her. She’s on the rooftop.”

Minji lifted her phone, “It’s fine guys, I’ve found both of them in that abandoned building.”

“How… But that doesn’t make any sense.” A softer, more naïve and smart voice from the phone, before she ended the call.

Ignoring Gahyeon’s inquisitive brain, Minji walked up the stairs, they were pristine, no blood splatter, not even the giant web in the corner of the room. Even the knife wasn’t covered in blood anymore.

A couple of desks. A walkie talkie on the floor next to a table and a stack of paper. Other than that, a very dull and bland room.

As Minji approached the other staircase, a shining light blinded her. She hurried up the stairs. An abandoned flashlight, glasses and a black police hat – probably belonging to that policewoman – laid on the floor, temporarily forgotten. The flashlight was flickering, it must be running out of battery.

Right, the rooftop. That’s where Handong ominously said Yoohyeon would be.

The staircase was narrower here than the last 2 and it lacked a handrail, not very safe. The door was white with a golden handle, and its gold paint was chipping off the edges. She turned the handle and pushed. It made a creaking sound, complaining under all of the stress it’s been through in such a short amount of time, especially in comparison to the years of serene quiet it went through, that was all too familiar to Yoohyeon.

There she was. Dressed as a clown. Minji walked towards her, wary of Yoohyeon’s position. 

Yoohyeon was leaning against the fence at the edge of the rooftop. Taking quick shallow breaths, shocked from what had just happened. She hadn’t moved much from when Handong dragged her back and fell. Was it sad to say that she regretted trying to jump the moment she felt gravity pull her down? Was it cowardly to say that she was glad Handong saved her despite what needed to happen when she did? Was it stupid to say that she didn’t want to watch Handong as she fell? As she selflessly saved her? As she fell to her death? As she tried to stop causing trouble but only caused more?

She was such a mess. How could – 

Before she even thought of moving from her frozen state, she felt a warmth engulf her. A familial warmth, something to stop her train of thought before it derailed into another dark place. She didn’t turn around, instead, letting the warmth speak for itself and slowly reveal its identity.

A soft hum escaped from Minji before she spoke. As reassuring as possible, she said, “Take a deep breath for me please.” Yoohyeon complied, knowing well that she knew what she was doing, “hold it for a few seconds,” she stopped breathing in. “Now let it all out. Let all your stress out,” Yoohyeon sighed all her worries and anxieties escaping from her lips, “feel better Yooh?”

Yoohyeon only nodded as she was too busy focusing on breathing deeply.

“Do you want to talk about it now?”

Yoohyeon shook her head.

“In future, or just never in general?”

Yoohyeon shrugged.

“It’s okay to not know now. I think you need time to process things, okay? I’m taking you back home.”

Yoohyeon turned around to see the familiar face of Minji and a comforting smile play across her mouth, a glint in her eyes showing how glad she was to see both her and Handong safe. It had been so long. Unbeknownst to either Yubin, Handong and Yoohyeon, time in The Outside dimension was far different and far longer than the time in the mortal world. It had been 36 hours since she realised Yoohyeon and Handong had been missing. 24 hours since the Minji decided to call about and search areas near their dorms. 10 hours since Siyeon accidentally found Bora in the party they were all supposed to go to. 3 hours since Siyeon gave Minji the location of Handong’s phone – that Handong’s roommate, who also attended the party, Gahyeon, had supposedly had a tracking app installed on; since Handong had the tendency to get lost often (they both had the app; they both get lost often). An hour since Minji found this area.

It had just been so long.

Minji helped Yoohyeon over the fence, clutching her hand tightly, giving a squeeze of encouragement before starting their journey down. 

.

.

.

Handong had felt a surge of energy since she entered the building, but only now did she realise. She noticed when Yubin’s leg started twitching. How where she pressed onto her body the wound was starting to disappear – repairing itself in a way like her wounds did, but faster, almost as if her powers could listen to her cries and pleas and feel her desperation, and granted her the ability to give instead of take. 

Yubin’s eyes opened. 

Handong’s face, an already comforting image to wake up to.

The gunshot wound wasn’t hurting.

Her neck. She turned it a bit. A gnawing pain erupted from it, followed by the deep aches from her collarbone. She arched her back in reaction to the pain, the pain from the demon sinking its claws down her stomach still there and tearing it slightly longer.

Her fingers. She pressed them onto the floor, feeling a stinging and burning pain bubble on the surface of the raw nail beds. She’d need the remove the index nail by herself later. It had to have been her right hand. That was her favourite hand as well. Of course, she was right-handed after all.

She was missing so many things on her person: her walkie talkie, her flashlight, her hat, her glasses, her baton, her rings. She’d have to buy new batteries for her flashlight, and now that she was thinking about battery life, probably her walkie talkie too.

She propped herself upright with her left hand, Handong retracted her hands from where her injuries previously were, 3 large dark jagged circular scars were all that was left on her body.

Handong tried to replicate what she did for the gunshots with the rest of Yubin’s injuries to no avail, only receiving the hissing of Yubin and no healing. She’d just have to hope that the slower but normal (in terms of her powers, it was still all supernatural) levels of enhanced healing would speed up Yubin’s recovery well enough.

Their unsure breaths mingled in the air.

Footsteps from above them echoed quietly through the empty rooms.

Hand in hand was Yoohyeon and Minji, Minji holding all of Yubin’s dropped items. Arm in arm were Handong and Yubin, Handong holding the baton and Yubin’s hand restocked with rings, both ready to go upstairs to collect her missing items. 

Well. They didn’t need to go upstairs anymore now.

Minji looked at Handong. From the small things that Yoohyeon did fill her in with, she saw that Handong indeed had lost a lot some of her memories; how, Yoohyeon either didn’t tell her or didn’t know, but Minji knew enough for her to be satisfied. Handong… This would take some time getting used to. Sure, she wasn’t super close to her, only knowing her via Yoohyeon, but she was a part of her close friend circle, nonetheless.

She looked at the policewoman in Handong’s arms. She’s only ever seen Handong this close to Yoohyeon before. 

The policewoman had short pink hair tied in a low ponytail. She looked young. Younger than all of them. She did a near 90-degree bow and introduced herself formally. “Hello, I’m Dami of the police department.” Handong shot Dami a quizzical side-eye, confused about something, her name? Dami was quite a unique name.

After Minji handed over Dami’s items over, she introduced herself and Yoohyeon, and explained their situation; missing out the ‘missing for over 36 hours part’ and ‘party with alcohol brought by an underage Gahyeon’ part.

In Yoohyeon’s car was Minji in the front seat and a fallen asleep Yoohyeon and Handong in the back seats. A cracked phone nearly slipping out of Handong’s hand.

Minji smiled to no one. And drove back to her dorm as she sent the text to Siyeon that they were safe; not ready to face the concerned screaming of Bora and confused English ‘what’s from Gahyeon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It finishes! At least this fic anyway! It's been 2 months since I uploaded the first chapter (minus one day), how time flies.
> 
> Throughout this fanfic, I spread out the titles of songs and B-sides, even some lyrics - idk if you want to find them all, I can't even remember where most of them are.
> 
> Await the sequel 'Dirty and Ugly' in a month or 2!  
'Dirty and Ugly' is the fluff, angst and romance fic that I originally wanted 'This is Halloween' before I got whisked away with the plot.


End file.
